Is Singing A Lesser Gift?

If there is a question that comes with arguments and controversy in Christian circles - and especially among those concerned with singing and worship service in the church - it is this one.

It punches worship leaders in the face.

I have even heard that it punches some so heavily to the extent that they are convinced to altogether forsake singing in church in exchange for "the pursuit of a greater and more influential gift...;" because (seemingly) it has been "revealed" to them that music, as a service, is not worthy a crown of glory when we meet Christ on the last day.

What is it all about anyway? What is this pursuit for a greater gift all about?

A pastor teaching a worship team on the importance of the music ministry in the Church

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It may be true that we place less emphasis on the importance and difference of/between gifts and services in the church or that we choose to play middle ground when addressing this matter. The latter is due to avoiding strife on doctrinal matters and therefore covering up our fear with negligence and abandoning the course of teachings on such matters.

Somewhere, you may hear one or two (or several) pastors (music pastors or pastors in general) bellowing: "this or that gift is superior to this or that gift" and so forth and so on, while trying to convince their congregation about gifts and services. 

Elsewhere, another couple of men of God will be heard exalting the significance of the Holy Spirit in empowering Christians in service; and that any one with a gift or a service can be effectively used to bring glory to God in one or many other ways.

There is a third group though. This one denies that singing (or as we love calling it, worship) is not a gift and it therefore has no room among the "major gifts" in the Church. This, they support with a Scripture we all know quite well: Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV) "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ..."

Although it does not descriptively and categorically mention that these mentioned above (apostleship, prophesy, evangelism, pastoral work and teaching) are the so-called "five major gifts" in the Church, this group jumps up with this Scripture in defense of their aptness in such matters. It is therefore a dogma among its members that music (or any other gift or service whatsoever) holds no seat amongst the "big five gifts."

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In trying to defend the language with which Christ through His Spirit speaks in many places, and while in some other way attempting to solve this mix-up, I can give us one example which is very practical: in Acts Chapter 10, the apostle Peter is hungry one afternoon and is caught in a trance which leads to the following conversation between him and the Lord (Acts 10:13-15) "And a voice came to him, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter said, 'Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.' And a voice spoke to him again the second time, 'What God has cleansed you must not call common...'"

Why am I bringing up this story? Consider this...

Christ and Peter could look at the same thing (food) and funny enough, both agree and disagree on what it stood for. According to Peter, the food that was being presented him was unclean. And he was right: God had initially proclaimed the food unclean (Leviticus 11); but now, in this very encounter, the Lord declares the food clean. Was God contradicting Himself? No, I don't think so. Why then was it both "clean" and "unclean" at the same time? It fights logic, right?

Okay, I think it was because the Lord wanted Peter to become flexible to His voice and understand deeply why at all the food could be both clean and unclean. That His voice mattered more than the food. That the issue of clean-ness  and unclean-ness was less important as compared to the ultimate goal that was being sought after. 

...His voice matters more than the food...

This sounds paradoxical yeah, but it is the truth.

When we keenly consider the above conversation, we can, to a considerable extent, draw a conclusion and say that they are both wrong and right all who say, "singing is a lesser gift" and that "singing is not a lesser gift..." Because just as food (in its being clean or unclean) does not really matter in Peter's case but the One who created and serves it to him that afternoon, so does the "less-ness" or "greatness" of music as a service or gift matter to the One who gives it to us for His own glory!

It doesn't matter whether the gifts/services being used in the Church are "major" or "minor"; what matters is whether they are being used effectively for the purpose for which they are/were intended. 

It doesn't matter how many talents the servant was given in Jesus' parable below. What matters is whether the talents were put to work or not!!

Matthew 25:14-15, 19-20, 22, 24-26: "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.

And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'

He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.

And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'

But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed."

In another example, the apostle Paul notes the following to the Corinthian church to show them that every gift (whether important or less important) mattered in the house of God, and that the weaker/lesser gifts (as the Corinthian church was convinced to see them) were being used by God for a greater purpose and to fulfill the unity of the Church...:-

1 Corinthians 12:21-25: "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I do not need you,' nor in turn can the head say to the foot, 'I do not need you.' On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another."

...God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another...

Whether our enthusiasm in service through singing is in any case killed or promoted due to our doctrinal standings, it is all upto us. We may choose to mumble and fumble in indecision with which side to take, but it's all irrelevant to Christ. We may choose to take no stand at all - it really doesn't matter to Him. What matters is how well our ears are inclined to the voice of the Spirit of God as He attempts to align our tiny theological standings on the part music plays in the Church to His own, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is greater than men (1 Corinthians 1:25.)

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The other few things that are good to understand and put mind as we follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit concerning music in the church are the questions answered below:-

1. What is a gift (or a spiritual gift)?

A gift, in Christian service, refers to the ability given to a Christian by the Holy Spirit towards serving the body of Christ. Also, according to this post and this one I wrote earlier on on discovering your abilities, gifts and talents, talents can compliment or grow into gifts.

References: Romans 1:11,  Romans: 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 7:7, 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, 1 Corinthians Chapter14.

2. What are services?

A service is work done by a Christian (as one person or group) that benefits another person, group and/or God.

References: Romans 12:1, 2 Corinthians 9:12, Ephesians 6:7, Revelation2:9.

3. Who gives gifts and services?

Christ/God through the Holy Spirit.

Reference: Refer to the Scriptures above.

4. Why are gifts and services given to the Church?

(a) For edification (uplifting, encouragement and enlightenment) of the church (1 Corinthians 12:7)

(b) Declaration of both God's goodness and commands (1 Timothy 4:13)

(c) For the betterment of our relationship with God - Him talking and walking with us, and us doing the same (Romans12:1 and Hebrews 13:15-16.)

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As I finish off, here is what C S Lewis had to say one day:

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

So it is whenever God uses our gifts and services in His presence: it is all for His glory.

Note: Most Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

End note: If you have ever tried to think that singing/ministering in music is a lesser gift, try telling that to the 24 elders and angels in Heaven.

Bonface Morris.

Leadership: Guidelines to Leading Worship & Worship Teams Today

It is already five Sundays into the new year, and I am glad that we've all been worshiping, worshiping the Lord Almighty.
It is amazing how days are going forth before us... January has vanished before I even took a deep breath, and February is already moving on rapidly.
The year is not new anymore. And if we have not yet embarked on doing something useful with ourselves, we are already failing.

As a worship leader (or as a worship team leader), you may have made a few resolutions in the course of last year or at the beginning of this new one - those you don't dare shout on any other mountain but on the mountain of God - about leading people in worship, about music, about your worship team and teamwork, about creativity and maybe about enthusiasm in ministry.
You may have called out on God in the secret place and whispered to Him (just as He does to you from time to time) about the congregation you lead, your fellow worship team members, the instruments you use, your pastor and so forth and so on...

But my question is: are you impressed so far with how things are going on?

There is this song by Casting Crowns, "Stained Glass Masquerade", where Mark Hall says this;

Is there anyone that fails? Is there anyone that falls? 

Am I the only one in church today feeling so small? 

Cause when I take a look around, everybody seems so strong 

I know they'll soon discover, that I don't belong 

So I tuck it all away, like everything's okay 

If I make them all believe it, maybe I'll believe it too 

So with a painted grin, I play the part again 

So everyone will see me the way that I see them 

Chorus: 

Are we happy plastic people, under shiny plastic steeples? 

With walls around our weakness, and smiles to hide our pain? 

But if the invitation's open, to every heart that has been broken 

Maybe then we close the curtain, on our stained glass masquerade... 

What Pastor Mark is trying to say to us is that once we are in our churches, we tend to pretend that everything is absolutely okay. We love making everyone else in our worship teams and congregations to believe that WE (as a whole) are okay. We stand before people every Sunday, look at them, smile, and pretend that as far as worship is concerned, our churches are doing well. Well, everything may not be okay.

The truth is that we face innumerable challenges but we prefer not to talk about them as worship leaders. We have gotten used to developing shock absorbers, learned how to work around these problems and move on.

But that doesn't mean that the issues we fail to attend to disappear, no. They still remain: the stings of insubordination in our teams, the lack of seriousness and charisma in fellow lead worshipers, the grating brought by self-ish-ness and the autonomous clunk of uncooperative members; and the lack of discipline (both in attendance of practice/rehearsal sessions and to authority)... These issues still grind us from time to time. They never stop glaring their teeth at us. And we feel inadequate and let down in one way or another. Mostly plastic. Because we fail to know how to deal with these challenges.

I have been in my church's Worship Team for about 8 years now. (Yes, I'm that old. :-)) I have seen, worked with and and heard from quite a number of worship leaders and members. We have struggled with so many issues - some of which have refused to disappear up to date. (We are a tiny and humble team anyway.) But regardless of the many challenges we are facing from week to week and season to season (because all worship team leaders will tell you that church worship moves along a certain trend of weeks and seasons), I am still convinced that God did not call us to this place for nothing. He did not ordain us to maintain a certain viewpoint and weakness and term it as "what we are". No, He did not.

I am [rightfully] convinced that effectiveness as a worship leader - even as challenges abound - is something I am going to talk about even ten years from now. I am convinced that I have had all these challenges right here where I am, with my small team of weird worshipers (me included), so that I may be able to wear the same shoes all lead worshipers all over the world wear every Sunday.

I need to remind us that victory has never been apart from a myriad of challenges, but their child. Challenges yield power to overcome even more challenges. So if I remind us that God has called us to a ministry that cuts across all the major offices of the church, a ministry that is not small but great - even though many of us may be tempted to think otherwise - a ministry that involves ushering people into God's presence, I know we will gain a conscience that overcomes what the devil is trying to do to our worship teams today.

The following points don't seek to solve our challenges but to better our standing (because Paul says in Ephesians 6:13 "...and having done all, to stand...")

1. Be Sure of Your Calling
Maybe as a start, the most important thing and what we need to be very sure about is our calling. Our calling is very critical to our commitment to the work of the One who called us.
A calling is nothing near passion and talent; it is deeper and greater than that. Being called is being called: you hear a voice, you follow that voice, you do what that voice is telling you; that is what we call being called. A worship leader needs to have a deep assurance that it is God who told them to do whatever they are doing, and that it is not their show.
If a worship leader is not sure that they have been called by God Himself, they will not survive the many challenges the devil will bring their way. Once we realize that we have been called by God Himself, and that He has chosen us to the Priestly service of helping people bring up their utmost offering to Him, we can conquer whatever comes our way with the Knowledge that He who called us is faithful and that He is always watching over us to the end. (Philippians 1:6)
If we are not sure about our calling, we can never be sure of our service.

2. Show Commitment
We may cry foul as many times as we want, but none of those we lead will believe in us as their leaders unless we are a notch higher in our commitment, intimacy with God and fervency than they are.
A team lead by a leader who is less serious about what he/she is doing will either fall apart or undermine their leadership.
People will take you for your word or ignore you according to how you manage your time (including theirs), how you follow after the words you say and how you do whatever you do.
As a worship team leader, (and/or as a worship leader), how much more than the rest of your team are you committed to the team and what you people do? How many new songs have you taught them as an individual? Do you pray more than any one of them? What about your own rehearsal sessions? do you practice on your own? Do you read your Bible often? Are you strongly founded in the Word of God? How much more creative than the rest of your team are you? Do you sing more than any one of them? Do they see intimacy in your relationship with God? Do you value teamwork?
These questions guide us in gauging our intimacy, commitment and fervency in leading worship.

3. Become Like a Pediatrician
God just whispered to me the other day that leading worship is like becoming a pediatrician. I fumbled with it for a while. I mean, I clearly knew that all pediatricians do is to treat children and offer guidance on child-care. I could not connect that with worship. I couldn't.
But wait, while in my fumbling, a congregation was brought to me: people seated with others standing, and a worship team full of newbies and oldies; and there I was taught the lesson of my life: "Morris, learn to treat all these people you are seeing before you like children. Pretend that none of them knows the right thing to do and how to do it. Tolerate them and make them learn from you... step by step..."
Then I understood. I hope you get it too: we need to treat everyone else around us as if they are children (not that they are children, but like they are children) and that they are waiting for guidance from us. Any wrong step they may make becomes our fault.
Why? Because we are their pediatricians, and they are our child patients...
A lead worshiper should never make assumptions about the congregation he/she is leading. Thus the faster we learn to deal with and handle our team members and congregations as we do children, the fewer the challenges we'll have to deal with.

4. Serve 
Everyone will tell you how well they know that "we are called to serve". Even politicians do so. But you will find very few people who actually serve. Very few people DO serve.
All the people in our congregations and worship teams exist at different spiritual levels. Each one of them wakes up every Sunday (or every other day of practice/rehearsal) from a family with all kinds of situations to deal with. We are not the same. We will never be. And we as worship leaders need to learn a way that will help us fully embrace this and deal with it in a constructively.
People have a wild array of distractions still clouding their minds even after stepping past that church gate. They may be standing before you in church, but their minds may be miles away.
In an article I was reading sometime back, the author indicated that every church or congregation - depending with where it is located and the nature of its members - needs to have a way of "capturing people's minds and bringing them to the same page and place" before worship or any other engagement in church is commenced.
The writer reiterated that the best way to enable people "switch" from their personal affairs to church affairs may be through story telling or a short skit, a poem or humor... Everyone needs to be on the same page before worship...
So considering that everyone else around us is like a child, how do we move them to the place where they can minister to God instead of waiting for God to minister to them?
It is through service. We need to learn to serve the congregations and teams we lead. Service is achieved through;

• Sharing a word of encouragement from Scripture 
• Smiling 
• Telling them a story about what God has been doing currently - with relation to the issues they already know 
• Encouraging them to sing because God is pleased when people worship and sing to Him. (Hebrews 13:15) 

That is all I have to say for today.

Remember that it is normal to be wondering (because I also do it often) "What has the church become today?" (in a twist of speech slightly similar to G.K. Chesterton's "What Is Wrong With the World?") and to stand before people on Sundays and get worried about what we have become: too green, without enthusiasm, fervency or emotion in our singing and without the good old loud prayer in our worship moments... but after you have wondered, know that God - the One who called us to His service - is still in FULL CONTROL. Yes, He is.

Keep doing what you are called to do. Your reward is greater than you can know or tell (1 Corinthians 15:58 and 1 Corinthians 2:9.)



Bonface Morris.

Do Not Come Alone!

More often than not, a question pops in my mind: "Do I really do the things I do in the manner that they should be done when it comes to worship and leading worship?" "Do I follow the right steps and the prompting of the Holy Spirit in order to have the right impact on the audience I am serving?” “Am I too apt or too exotic?”

I do ask myself such questions because, first, most of the time, I am concerned about how I lead worship; and second, it is because this is what happens to every worship leader or singer out there (or anyone interacting with the public from time to time). We always feel insufficient on how we deliver whatever we are assigned to deliver.
Last Sunday, I was privileged to visit a certain church in a remote area some few kilometres from where I stay, and good enough, with it came the opportunity to finish writing this blog post that I had started writing a few months back but still needed “enough inspiration”.
Just the day before Sunday, I had been talking to a friend of mine about something I call “the music style of a church or a congregation.” I was telling him that it is not possible for all church congregations to have the same music style. (Music style in this case being the way a worship team within a congregation sings, the type(s) of songs they sing (whether English or vernacular or Swahili or local contemporary or hymnals or African or songs with an Afro fusion), the musical instruments they use in worship, their number of singers, song arrangement, the way they involve the congregation in worship or dancing etc).
This came about after realizing that my church (after being here for a while) has a certain music style ardently followed by the members, and although I know that most of us are in limbo of its reign upon us, it is a reality we can’t evade. The truth is that only certain songs sang in a certain manner blend well with us. (This is not to mean that we can’t sing “other types of songs” or “other types of songs in another kind of way”, but that singing them would complicate the whole issue that I am addressing in this post.)
It therefore means that any kind of creativity being introduced in my church will still have to flirt with the baseline that is its music style. Only then will any new songs being introduced be “acceptable” by at least 90% of its members. This “music style” depicts what songs and how songs are sang in our church, and also if these songs can still be needed (be on demand) or liked whenever we come to worship in singing.

Now, back to talking about my visit to that small church…
There are a few things I learned in the worship sessions from that small congregation;

a)      The originality with which they sing their songs

b)     The coherence and unison in their “music style” – how well the members pick up a song right after the first line is sang

c)      The passion both in the worship leader and the congregation while engaging in worship

I learned that they are these “tiny” things in life that possess the greatest lessons we can ever learn. You don’t need “big congregations” or “thunderous voices” or “award-winning Gospel artists” (although they are all good in serving one purpose or another) in order to learn a lesson or two about worship. No, you just need your sensitivity to the voice of God.
Of course this church did music in a way that my church never does. In fact, I didn’t even understand or blend well with some of their songs and dancing, but you know what? they made me like it – they moved me within them until I was able to be like them - so I sang and danced along to what I didn’t even understand! And did it really matter that I did not understand what they were singing or their dancing styles? Or that their music style was “out of place”? I don’t think so. The worship leaders were achieving their goal: taking the congregation to their Father and their Maker – that is all that mattered! They didn’t go before the throne of God alone! No, they didn’t…
With the few lessons I learnt above, I realize that  role of a worship leader – whether they belong to the biggest or the smallest congregation in this world – is to lead people to God. The worship leader should achieve, at least in one moment of worship, the task of taking people to God. He/she should never go to God alone. After all has been said and done, God will still be sitting on His throne waiting to see the worship leader bring His people home - that is a worship leader’s responsibility.
There are a few things that may warp this great commission though;

a)    Lack of good communication or linkage between the worship leader and the congregation -  I am always of the opinion that if the worship leader realizes that the people in the congregation need him/her to be social with them and freed-up, interaction with these church members during or before worship, or yet still outside the confines of the church should be made more of a priority than a option. A cat can’t lead dogs to war nor can a horse race with donkeys. The results will be utter prejudice. If the worship leader is stuck “into his/her own world” from which they don’t want to get out of, how do you expect it to be a simple task, that one of holding people’s hands and leading them to their Father? If he/she can’t meet them where they are, taking them to where he/she wants them to go will be the hardest thing to do on this earth. He/she needs first to move with them at their pace, understanding them and tolerating them, and then pull them up to the unknown. They should start from the known to the unknown. Connecting with people before connecting them with God is the greatest thing a worship leader can ever do in the way of achieving the goal of not going to God alone, and it is the most basic thing every worship leader should ever understand.

b)    The viral desire to become like every other famous/modern church you know – most campus students (and mostly those who come from the countryside) will confess that the type of fellowship (or cherch, as many will put it) they have at campus overrides what they experience when they go back home during the holidays. This is also true with most people living in towns and cities when they go back home to these “small churches”. In such circumstances, or to the worship leader who happens to experience “another level of worship” in other churches, wisdom should be practised when wanting to change a few things in these “remote congregations” when they go back to them. Yes, it is not easy to change a church’s music style overnight and it may not even be possible, but it is important to be keen on the following things:

-      God’s timing - everything needs the intervention of God. Everything. Never override God’s intentions for your worship team by replacing them with your own selfish desires. Pray before commencing to effect any desired change in activities. Seek Him first. Let this always take centre stage, so that even if it fails (and it doesn’t have to), you will still be confident that it was of God, and that He had your back.

-      A church’s teachability - does your church take long to learn new stuff? What about the members of your worship team? Are they able to sing songs in the music style you are introducing? This will determine “how much change they can receive and tolerate” before it blows into your face.

-      Taking risks - Yes, it may not be possible for these people to adopt a new way of doing things, but you also need to learn to take risks. Introduce these new things in bits, ensuring that neither the worship team nor the congregation is overwhelmed by what you are bringing in. Remember that maintaining the status quo won’t lift you to a new level of worship, so always dare to do things differently even if it may not be mutually accepted by all.

My parting shot: always, as a worship leader, as you consider what I’ve said above, never ever go to God alone… because even right now, somewhere within me, I can still hear Him whispering to us, "The next time you come, boy/girl, don't come alone!"


Bonface Morris.

Music & Worship: The Power of A Song

I have heard it said that, "Religion is the opium of the people"(Karl Marx), but now more than ever, I'm convinced that it is not religion that opiates society, it is music.

If there is something everyone is so familiar with, something everyone loves, something that reveres and taunts both the old and the young, something that does not necessarily need a struggle to get along with; something sweet and comforting and memorable, something that gladly helps kill our sorrows and bury our pains, something that mediates the healing of our wounds and the clothing of our nakedness; something that echoes the un-echoed and verbs the unspoken, something that arouses feelings of peace and declarations of war, something that batters and scatters, while yet again, smothering and pampering; something that expresses our deepest fears and buries them altogether, that something should be music; yeah, it should be a song...

Who never sings a song? Who in the heavens and on earth never sings or loves a song? Who has no song to sing? Who is it that has no song they relate to? Who refuses a song its pious coddling upon their hearts? Who? Huh? I have not found one and there are not many, because even the absence of 'singing' is music in itself: the song of silence... ;)

Music is the art of the soul expressed in earth's most tangible and influential mode: words. The repetitiveness of a theme resounding in one's soul is what births a song, or in many cases, music. Music can be an impetus impeding or supporting the flow of emotion within someone. It is the best "psychological breather" so to say.

Sometimes music need not to be words. Sometimes it is just that sound of harmonious instruments bringing a melody that offers a stylized atmosphere. Sometimes it is just a moment - the stillness of a heart battling or rejoicing within itself...

I have a feeling that music, when endowed with the right words and atmosphere, has power beyond our natural understanding. I am sure that the combined influence of music to a given society has not been fully explored: it has not been fully known what a song can [absolutely] do to a soul, (but partially so, I will try to elaborate in this post) whether perishing or begetting life. It has not been fully understood, but allow me to somehow help you see it...

I am sure that if we were to anthropologically research on music and society, the outcome will be that, of all arts, music fits best, is the most influential and is the most adopted art in a society. Actually, almost every situation and/or season in life has a song attached to it regardless of the society one lives in: that is why Andrew Fletcher once said "Let me write the songs of a nation - I don't care who writes its laws..." That's how influential music can be - it defines a society... Maybe in my own small words I can say, "I will read through and sing the songs of a nation, then therein I will know the heart and mind of that nation..."

A good song or a reckless song forges a season and an atmosphere with it. There are songs of war, songs of peace, songs of celebration, songs of lamentation...

If one gets used to singing songs of lamentation, grief becomes his/her DAILY food; but if someone chooses to echo the songs of joy, joy will become their portion. If a young unmarried person loses himself/herself in songs of love, love will be stirred within them and uncontrolled passions may soon emerge. Happy songs CREATE moments of happiness and joy. If we sing songs about God and His faithfulness, Faith is built in us and we can start seeing Him as He really is and therefore make it easier to win our war against the enemy (Marvin Sapp in his song "Praise Him in Advance" says, 'Praise will confuse the enemy...'); but if we sing songs of despair and gloom, our hearts and minds will tend to move towards that direction. If we sing songs about clubbing, raping people (God forbid), fornication, adultery, drinking and such things, don't be deceived (and don't lie to us either): your mind will remain attached to and thinking about such things. Do not underestimate the power of a song.

We somehow have a lesser power when it comes to what we hum as determined by the kind of songs we listen to. Our subconscious creates rhythms within us that are transferred to our lips based on what we listen to. That is why when a worship leader tells me, "I can't remember any song to sing right now...!" I normally ask them, "What have you been singing from morning? What about what you've been singing the whole week long...!!??" Any music writer will tell you that above 70% of the music they write is influenced by the type and genre of music they listen to: to make music, you listen to music - unless you are super-creative... The best memorable songs carry the emotional turmoil or aptness of moments, telling stories the singer so dearly beholds to his/her audience; and when mixed with poetry, music (or songs) becomes a true definition of someone's (or a society's) inner being...

Side note (to the worship leader/song writer): We can't lead people to sing and love what we don't sing and love!!  

There is a reason as to why I post a lot of what I listen to on social media. It is not all about boasting that I know quite a bunch of artists and the great songs they sing, but the storyline is this: I create my mood for the day by the kind of music I listen to from morning right into the night. That music keeps on replaying in my mind all day long hence mostly influencing my thinking (and behavior) in that day.

A song with a theme of thanksgiving for my morning makes me have spontaneous moments of thanksgiving all day long - mostly happening in my subconscious, and occasionally exploding into loud singing. People will tell you that I mumble rhythms a lot...

There is one thing that I want us to understand: listening to music that buries your heart in sorrow and other negative behavior has been known to bring about suicidal tendencies. This article (please click on the link to read) tries to illustrate how listening to heavy metal music contributed to several suicide cases in a certain people who listened to that music.

The words in a song (because words carry a force - a force that is the basis of them being used) have so much power upon our being that we should not neglect them. Illuminati feeds on our ignorance of the power that words in music have on our lives (read: thoughts, actions and behavior) and has left many people (mostly young) to think that "a song and words in a song are just like words in every other song..." That is not true. Words influence you depending on who is/was their source and the purpose for which they were intended...

I know that the greatest and deepest songs have not been sung yet. Heaven has its endless songs and the earth too has its songs. Be it as it may, music, unlike most of us have been made to believe, is not a lesser gift - whether in Heaven or on earth - because it is the only art that is eternal. Music will he sung in Heaven as well as in hell; so, as we all know, eternal things are not "minor" but "major".

In Christianity, music consolidates all other gifts. Music is a gift that has its portion and a part to play in ALL the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. Side note: Bear with me on this one because I don't have enough time to delve into that for now...

Music, song and poetry are revealed in the following verses of Scripture:-
1. Shouts and music by the Israelites brought down the walls of Jericho and gave them victory (Joshua 6:20). 
2. The prophet Jeremiah (a renowned "man of grief") says this in Lamentations 5:14 [ESV]: "The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music..."
3. The Apostle Paul referred to music and poetry in many occasions:
(a) Acts 16:25-26 [ESV]: "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened."
(b) Ephesians 5:19 [ESV]: "...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart..."
(c) Colossians 3:16 [ESV]: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
(d) Hebrews 13:15 [ESV]: "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name."
(e) Acts 17:28b [ESV]: "...as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring...'"

Although I don't have enough time to elaborate every moment as described by Scriptures above, we can all see that the Bible too is full of music and poetry. In fact, the Book of Psalms has the most memorable parts of Scripture (my own research) so highly beheld by both Christians and non-Christians and forms the central part of all Judeo-Christian faiths and worship. This means that music is as important to God as it is to man. He expects us to forge our lives around the right kind of music, and such that comes from deep within so that even if our mouths won't open to sing to Him or about Him, our lives can still be a song that is pleasant to Him - that which stirs Him up to action on behalf of His people, that which draws Him nearer to us:
John 4:23 [ESV]: "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him."

Have a musical day/night people! ;)


Bonface Morris.  

Let the Worshipers Arise

One of the albums I’ve ever listened to so much is this one done by Phillips, Craig and Dean, one of my favourite gospel rock trio, in 2004 - Let The Worshipers Arise. Before I went out to get the music, the title tilted my soul a bit – let the worshippers arise? Had they fallen? Had they grown cold? Had they fallen asleep? Had they been succumbed to some death or something? I wanted to get it in the music. Maybe there I would get the answers I was seeking for...
At such a time as this when church philosophy is being changed by the day and people have diversified their views on Christianity and the act of worship, it is of great value that you and I define our terms of worship. Of course there is music. Then there is singing. Then there are instruments. But worship is not any of those. But it may be inclusive of either or all of them.
Matt Redman, the man who composed, ‘Heart Of Worship’ at a time when his church (or congregation in his case) had lost meaning in singing with instruments; and while in a time of ‘no instruments worship’, found out that the heart needed to sing more than the instrument and the music...That music was just a tool, an aid to lubricate devotion. He found out that devotion itself had to be nurtured first...
So has your worship risen within you? Is it rising or is it asleep? Is it dying or is it alive?
I know you expected me to quote John 4:4-26 – the famous passage where Jesus meets a Samaritan woman and there follows a conversation on who is ‘worshipping’ a true God and in the right way... And Jesus, who happens to know motives and thoughts, is more of a ‘mysterious man’ to this lady (the Samaritan woman) – He knows too much about her! The story ends not with argument, but with confession, “Come and see the man who told me everything I ever did”... But that’s a story for another day. In that conversation, it is evident that worship in Israel had arbitrarily died. No one was doing anything as inscribed in the Torah. The 653 laws had become too hard to keep, huh? Israel was in a recess period where no-one cared about God, or the temple, or worship, or the mountain...No-one.
But Jesus had come at such a time as that to ‘let the worshippers arise’. To raise such a people who will give their all to God as influenced by the Spirit of God. To lift us an army, a people, who will do it in Spirit and in Truth. To raise a people who will do it in Love. Such a people who will take the interest of others at heart and not just their own. Such a people who will listen to the voice of their Shepherd. Such a people who will become heirs in a Kingdom that was to come. Such a people... who will be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, consecrated for the glory of their God... Jesus had come so that the worshippers may be raised from their death beds, from their gloom, from their slumber, from their lack of vision; from their stillness and ineffectiveness... he wanted them raised!
And He is here telling us to arise. To arise and worship. Maybe with a song. A new song. Maybe with a guitar. Maybe with a musical instrument. But majorly with our hearts. With our whole hearts. Let the worshippers arise! Are you rising?